South Korea's LG Electronics Co on Thursday launched a new mobile phone incorporating a buttonless touch-screen that resembles the much-hyped Apple Inc iPhone -- and will be in stores next month.
LG's Prada Phone is being produced in partnership with the Italian fashion brand. It is set to go on sale in late February for 600 euros (US$780) at mobile phone dealers and Prada stores in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. It comes to Asia in March.
The no-button interface with the entire phone face covered by a touch-sensitive screen resembles the Apple iPhone, announced by the US company earlier this month to much fanfare as an innovation that could shake up the industry.
Apple's iPhone is set for US release in June, and will cost US$599 for the high-end model with 8 gigabytes of internal memory -- the same as the LG model.
Other markets will see the iPhone later this year and next year.
The LG phone has a wide-screen display and can play most popular digital music and video formats, and has a 2-megapixel camera like the iPhone. Its memory can be expanded with cards.
The iPhone allows Internet use also through regular wireless Wi-Fi networks, and has a full-featured Web browser.
The LG phone is 12mm thick, just 0.4mm more than the iPhone.
Meanwhile, Apple will have plenty of room to eventually reduce the retail price of its upcoming iPhone, according to preliminary gross margin estimates by a market research company.
The iPhone will yield gross margins of more than 50 percent at the current set of retail prices, iSuppli Corp said in an analysis of presumed component and manufacturing costs.
The 4-gigabyte version of the iPhone, with a retail price of US$499,will cost Apple US$245.83 to make, iSuppli estimated.
The 8-gigabyte version, which is priced at US$599, will cost Apple US$280.83.
"With a 50 percent gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward," said Jagdish Rebello, a director and principal analyst with research firm iSuppli.
Since Apple will face stiff competition in the cell phone market, the company may need to cut into its margins to reduce pricing in the future, he said.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
The Apple iPhone will be available starting in June exclusively through AT&T's Cingular Wireless. Apple has said it hopes to sell 10 million units next year, or about 1 percent of the market.
That goal "seems attainable," Rebello said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat